My ankle has been doing pretty well now. I only start to limp a little after a long day of walking, but otherwise it's pretty unnoticeable. I also saw a physical therapist in my hometown hospital last Friday and she gave me a bunch of exercises to do. I have a stretchy resistance band to work on my ankle ROM and strength, as well as some stretches using the wall, and basic leg lifts/calf raises. She also measured my range of motion angles and said I'm doing really well.
Right now I'm about 3 1/2 weeks since I last used crutches. I can
kind of run. Not really full strength or full length steps, but it's more of a fast walk with slight hopping like a running kind of motion. I haven't tried jumping on my feet yet. I think I still need more strength. Just standing on one leg, I'm very shaky and can't stay balanced for more than 10-15 seconds. The physical therapist said I can try running increments right now just to build up muscle, but no more than a couple minutes at a time. She also said it will probably take a month or so to work back up to a normal jog pace.
Below are some photos (don't mind my hairy legs, I can't really shave over the scar yet). The screw removal surgery was about 1 1/2 or two weeks prior to these photos, so the scar healed over a little bit. They just made a tiny centimeter incision over the old incision, so the bottom part of my scar is in the beginning healing stages while the rest has had over three months to heal.
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| Post-screw removal scar (about 1 1/2 weeks post-operation) |
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| Scar 1/12 weeks post-operation |
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| Scar post-screw removal |
Had a very similar injury on the exact same day as you-- have you noticed better flexibility after the screw removal?? Mine is in 3 weeks..
ReplyDeleteI think my flexibility has gotten better! But I'm not sure if that's from the screw being removed or just from healing by time. I've been keeping up with stretches and everything so my ankle is doing really well.
DeleteBut just to be clear, I only had the one screw taken out that went through both bones. The rest of the eight screw will stay in forever. So if you're getting all the screws out, I've heard from multiple sources that range of motion does tend to increase. Since I only had the one screw taken out, the surgeon said its not so much that flexibility will increase, just that people mainly get the syndesmosis screw out so they won't have future problems with it. For example, it could work its way out or break. I'm glad I got it and my flexibility has gotten better.
How is your ankle doing bow 4 yrs later? Im going thru the same recover...i get my hard cast off next week and start 50% weight bearing....really scared to do this.
ReplyDelete